{"id":49548,"date":"2016-10-22T10:05:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T17:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=49548"},"modified":"2016-10-22T10:05:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T17:05:42","slug":"origin-of-the-american-accent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/origin-of-the-american-accent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Case of the American Accent"},"content":{"rendered":"
The following is an article from Uncle John\u2019s Bathroom Reader<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hey, youz! Whah do \u2018mericuns have all differnt aks-ay-ents? It\u2019s, like, totally confusing and somewhat bizzahh, dontcha know.<\/em><\/p>\n

TALK THIS WAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

An accent is \u201ca manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.\u201d That\u2019s not to be confused with a dialect, which is a specific form of a language that has its own unique lexicon (words), grammatical structures, and phonology (a fancy word for accent). So an accent can be a part of a dialect, but not vice versa. Because dialects can be traced to geographic regions, they give linguists important clues to the origins of accents. And discovering where accents came from can explain why an American says \u201cta-may-toe\u201d and a Brit says \u201cta-mah-toe,\u201d or why a Bostonian says \u201cpahk the cah\u201d and a Nebraskan says \u201cpark the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

BRITISH INVASIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The United States began as colonies of Great Britain, but the settlers didn\u2019t trickle across the Atlantic at random. According to Brandeis University Professor David Hackett Fischer in his book Albion\u2019s Seed, there are four primary American accents, which derive from the major migrations from England to the New World in the 17th and 18th centuries.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> East Anglia to Massachusetts (1620\u201340). Puritans who fled to the New World to escape religious persecution were, by and large, from the eastern counties of England. To this day, in remote parts of East Anglia, there are rural folk who speak in what is sometimes referred to as the \u201cNorfolk whine.\u201d When they came to New England, that accent came along with them. You may recall the TV commercials where an old fellow says, \u201cPepperidge Fahm remembahs\u2026\u201d That\u2019s the Norfolk whine.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> South and West of England to Virginia (1642\u201375). Immigrants who settled in the colony of Virginia tended to be wealthy Cavaliers (that is, loyal to the King) who came to the New World to become planters. Many elements of their accent can still be heard in rural Virginia, such as their penchant for elongated vowels\u2014stretching you into \u201cyeew,\u201d and shortened consonants\u2014\u201dax\u201d for ask, and \u201cdis\u201d and \u201cdat\u201d for this and that.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> North Midlands to Pennsylvania and Delaware (1675\u20131725). In another flight to escape religious persecution, Quakers, largely from the northern and middle parts of England, also settled in the New World. Their speech patterns, characterized by shorter vowel sounds\u2014a short \u201ca\u201d for dance, not the Yankee and East Anglian \u201cdahnce,\u201d or the South England and Virginia \u201cday-ence\u201d\u2014formed the basis for the flat Midwestern American accent we hear today, which has since been adopted as the standard American \u201cnon-regional\u201d accent spoken by most newscasters.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Borderlands to the Backcountry (1715\u201375). The so-called \u201cScotch-Irish\u201d fled their poverty-stricken homeland of northern England and southern Scotland, first to northern Ireland and then to America\u2019s mid-Atlantic coast. These new arrivals were considered uncultured and unruly and didn\u2019t mix well with the established settlers, so most kept going to settle in the backcountry of the Appalachian Mountains. Their distinctive accent can still be heard in many southern regions: \u201cfar\u201d for fire, and \u201cwinder\u201d for window. The Borderlands accent gave rise to the twangy \u201ccountry\u201d accent heard in poorer parts of the South\u2014as opposed to the south-of-England \u201cSouthern gentleman\u201d drawl heard in more affluent regions. Think Yosemite Sam for the former and Foghorn Leghorn for the latter.<\/p>\n

THE HUDDLED MASSES<\/strong><\/p>\n

After achieving independence, the United States expanded westward and fresh waves of immigrants arrived in New York, New Orleans, and other port cities. The Northeast kept closer ties with Britain, which explains why Bostonians caught onto the English trend of broadening the \u201ca\u201d in bath, while the flatter pronunciation was used in most of the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

WORLD TOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Just as it was with the English, immigrants from other countries tended to stick together when they got to America. Here\u2019s a look at where they came from, where they ended up, and how the way they spoke then still affects the way people in the United States speak today.<\/p>\n